Geoffrey Hill(b. 1932)
Veni Coronaberis
A Garland for HelenWaddell6
The crocus armies from the dead
rise up; the realm of love renews
the battle it was born to lose,
though for a time the snows have fled
and old stones blossom in the south
with sculpted vine and psaltery7
and half-effaced adultery
the bird-dung dribbling from its mouth;
and abstinence crowns all our care
with martyr-laurels8 for this day.
Towers and steeples rise away
into the towering gulfs of air.